Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEL), a leading provider of rapid
diagnostic testing solutions, announced today financial results for its
third quarter ended September 30, 2010.

Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEL), a leading provider of rapid diagnostic testing solutions, announced today financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2010.

Third Quarter 2010 Results

For the third quarter of 2010, total revenues were $28.2 million, compared to $56.2 million for the third quarter of 2009, a decrease of 50%. The comparison to the prior year is affected by higher than normal revenues in 2009 due to the H1N1 pandemic.

Net loss for the third quarter of 2010 was $5.9 million, or $0.21 per share, compared to net income of $14.9 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2009. Included in the third quarter results is $3.2 million of income tax expense to adjust the previously recorded tax benefit to the third quarter year-to-date effective tax rate. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding non-recurring items and amortization of acquired intangibles, net loss for the third quarter of 2010 was $1.6 million, or $0.06 per share.

“Our revenues and operating performance for the third quarter were in line with our expectations, driven by sales of non-seasonal products and a more just in time influenza inventory stocking strategy with distribution,” said Douglas Bryant, president and chief executive officer at Quidel Corporation. “In a more typical respiratory disease season we have seen very little end user demand for our influenza tests in the third quarter, as three-quarters of that demand has traditionally occurred in the first quarter. And as expected, in the third quarter our sales of flu tests were modest, and reflective of sales from our distributors to their customers, which were nearly equivalent to what we saw in 2008, a season that is a better benchmark than last year’s pandemic. Going forward, because of our just in time inventory stocking strategy, we expect that revenues for our products, like our influenza tests, will more closely coincide with end user demand for those products.”